I've noticed that the posters who are saying that they've never experienced problems or different service when dining alone have mentioned being on business trips. I think this makes a difference. Hotel restaurants, or restaurants that cater to business people on trips, are likely to be more welcoming of single diners, because more of their client base consists of people who dine by themselves. A restaurant that's not in that business doesn't necessarily think of single diners as being part of their desired clients.

I dine alone all the time - DH has a lot of night shifts, and I like spoiling myself by eating out at restaurants he wouldn't join me at - so my experiences are based on ordinary restaurants around Copenhagen and are not based on business trips at all.

I've never experienced difference service when dining alone compared to when dining with others.

That waitress was a moron. I used to be a waitress in a nice restaurant. People by themselves tipped above average, sometimes way above average. They fell into two categories:

1) Business travelers. They ate out often enough to appreciate and recognize really good service, particularly customized good service (they could be quirky). Company was paying, so the tip wasn't coming out of their pocket.

2) People who appreciated the food and the restaurant experience enough that they didn't care to limit themselves to when it was a social occasion. Generally easy-going customers. Any service more than minimum acceptable and equal to other tables upped the starting point to 25%

I haven't been back to Outback Steakhouse after they sat me at the bar because I was alone. I ended up taking up a huge amount of the bar with my salad and steak and baked potato all on different plates, and my drink and the bread. Not a great dining experience. (The bartender was great but I wasn't drinking so he probably wasn't enjoying having me there either.)

I haven't been back to Outback Steakhouse after they sat me at the bar because I was alone. I ended up taking up a huge amount of the bar with my salad and steak and baked potato all on different plates, and my drink and the bread. Not a great dining experience. (The bartender was great but I wasn't drinking so he probably wasn't enjoying having me there either.)

At least the bar was better than my experience with an Outback Steakhouse a few years ago. I was deliberately put in an entire empty section, behind a pillar. I had to get up to find the server to:- get a menu- give my order- remind them after 1/2 hour that I was, indeed, still waiting for my order, or at least some bread- get my bill- have the server take my bill.

When leaving, I mentioned to the hostess that I wasn't pleased at being, essentially, abandoned to my own devices. She raised a Spock-like eyebrow and sniffed, "Well of COURSE you weren't getting served. You were sitting in a closed section!" The implication appeared to be that I had bullied myself into that particular section, rather than meekly going where I was put.

The hostility I got that night was totally baffling, far beyond what I'd expect even for places hostile to the single female diner. I can only surmise that they had mistaken me for someone who had treated them very, very badly in the past (I had never been to that restaurant before, so there wasn't a likelihood I'd done something unintentionally rude myself).

Every other OBS I've ever eaten at has been extremely friendly, so it's no reflection on the chain.

Logged

My cousin's memoir of love and loneliness while raising a child with multiple disabilities will be out on Amazon soon! Know the Night, by Maria Mutch, has been called "full of hope, light, and companionship for surviving the small hours of the night."

Yeah, I have found that my setvice os good there - including when I am alone. That being said, I know that if you have a manager at one restaurant who has a different approach/attitude, the story might be very different.

I like to have a meal out by myself occasionally, and if I was seated at a bar, I would tell them I wanted a table. If they could not get one or would not get me a table, I will go to a different restaurant. To me, the bar is first a place to have a drink, then possibly to have some munchies or a sandwich and you are close to everyone else sitting there. When I treat myself, it is to have a meal away from the kids , and to just relax. I don't want to sit and listen to all the chit chat and try to eat a full meal.

I dine out solo on occasion and only sit at the bar if it's incredibly crowded or if the bartender is someone I know. Otherwise, I feel weird pulling out my usual book so I can read (and people watch over the cover) while I eat.